These are no common advantages.
We are wiser and better for the presence of great numbers of books,
though we may never know what they contain. We see how much perseverance
and labor have accomplished, and are sensible that what has been may be
equalled if not excelled. In great libraries, we realize how the works
of the ambitious are neglected, and their names forgotten, while we
cannot fail to be impressed with the value of the truth, that the only
labor which brings a certain reward is that performed under a sense of
duty.
Salem is itself the intelligent and refined centre of an intelligent and
prosperous population; and we may venture so far, in just eulogy, as to
attribute to it the united advantages of city and country, without a
large share of the privations of the one, or the vices of the other. Of
the four Normal Schools, this is, unquestionably, the most fortunate in
its position and surroundings. We, therefore, ask for the concurrence of
the public in the judgment which has established it in this city. If it
shall be the fortune of the government to assemble a body of instructors
qualified for their stations, there will then remain no reason why these
accommodations and advantages should not be fully enjoyed.
The Normal School differs from all other seminaries of learning, and
only because it is an auxiliary to the common schools can it be deemed
their inferior in importance.
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